Nike is one of the world's strongest brands and Ray Riley is responsible for the company's move into technology-embedded products to enhance athletic performance. As director of the in-house skunk works, [techlab, he aims to take a portfolio approach to commercializing new products and services. Mp3, barometric measurements, vital signs monitoring and mobile communications are some of the technologies Mr. Riley is using to make smart products. Leveraging Nike's strong brand and design aesthetic, he partners with outside vendors who maintain a competency in technology, leaving Nike to design and market the product. Using the principal of "blind design," Mr. Riley encourages designers to 'live where you are not comfortable' in an effort to push the boundaries. Sounds like a familiar theme, no?

Chief Scientist at Eyematic Interfaces, Inc, author, composer and "virtual reality pioneer" (thanks chitchat) Jaron Lanier, whose breathless, pithy presentations can easily lose all but the most active listeners, inspired the audience with some heavy thinking material. He began by denying the existence of a "digital renaissance" and moved into the theme of innovation with his own twist: the digital design dichotomy of villainous versus virtuous technology. Again, resounding the need for a resurgence of childlike imagination, Mr. Lanier pointed out the usefulness of good digital design that aids furthering the ideal of a real, shared imagination. His example of the Napster success pointed out that most kids never indulged in sharing the music files as a real means to spend less money, but more for the psychology behind it, a communal sense, a somewhat nefarious sense, but overall a shared sense of pushing the limits. The key to its success was this "sense of a shared musical dreamspace, not its other flawed areas," like the promise of free music (fast speed internet access, machinery, time and patience ain't cheap). Another example, which segued nicely to his usual rant against current directions of Artificial Intelligence, is "AskJeeves" vs. "Google" in the search engine market place. The key to the success of Google over AskJeeves is that one remains true to it's function in its form. Very simply presented, it doesn't promise anything it can't deliver, from the basic interface to the copy used on the page. The other implies that it can not only provide flawless record searching, but will also serve as a butler. The lesson: products designed to be products succeed, the product that tries to be a magical AI piece will fail. He continued along this vein by pointing out that today's "Turin Test" to identify the hidden computer versus the hidden man, they are indistinguishable. The only question is, did the computers get as smart as man, or has man gotten as dumb as the machine?

Mr. Lanier also added this pearl: in the midst of any design, don't forget the important role of aesthetics. In the busy world today, art still serves its noble purpose: to move people towards ends other than mass suicide.

-Human creativity happens faster than evolution. Therefore we cannot understand creativity.

-The ultimate death/denial fantasy is having your brain connected to a computer.

-Digital product design is at the forefront of an ideological struggle.

-The better hardware gets, the more apparent the way we make software sucks. On this point, Lanier makes reference to his dueling essays with Ray Kurtzweil, the father of AI.

Melody Roberts, Director of Design at SmartDesign, here in NYC, focused on social innovation, directing the audience to innovate within the context of social change. Social concerns drive modern design practice: consumer-oriented marketing, usability, inclusivity, access, sustainability, personal expressionism, and consumer-oriented marketing all derive meaning from the needs of all members of society. Adoption of technology is a push-pull dialectic between possible and desirable ways of addressing such needs, so analyzing them, today's for immediate opportunity, yesterday's for instructive guides, and tomorrow's for continual motivation.

Bob Steinbugler, Manager of Strategic Design for the IBM Corporate Design Program, which explores new product concepts to support their 3 - 5 year business strategy and collaborates with their Research Division to develop prototypes to leverage new technologies, made many points on innovation. Most important is the contention that innovation, which does occur in large, well-established companies, even those outside of Silicon Valley, does not occur by itself; innovation is a completely separate activity. This makes it an expensive one, but money spent on it is an investment, as innovation is essential for long-term growth. He also pointed out that innovation does not occur during normal product development and is an entire team effort, not the sole responsibility of the Industrial Designers.

Thanks to IDSA National and Symbol Technologies for putting together a great event. I only wish these could happen even more often.

Ian White is an author and consultant. He can be reached at www.ianwhiteinc.com.

> back to top

>> back to Core!